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Everything listed under: Bird Issues

Clean Solar Solutions have completed cleaning the solar panels on the roof of the BMW Mini plant in Oxford, UK. The 3MW solar array is spread across 3 roofs and has a total of 11,659 solar panels, spread across 20,000 square meters.

The solar panels were originally installed by UK installation company, Evoenergy in 2014, but has fallen victim to infrequent bird dropping strikes. A window cleaning company was called in to clean the solar panels, but they were unable to cope with the scale of the project. Clean Solar Solutions were then called in to expertly clean the solar panels and provide their advice about how to inhibit the bird activity.

Times are changing in the UK as to who will be allowed to clean solar panels. Currently, like Australia, there is little legislation or regulating of solar panel cleaners, but the health and safety conscious Brits are looking to limit those who can clean solar panels by way of training and certification. Managing Director of Clean Solar Solutions, Steve Williams, is playing his part in advising the UK industry. His expertise is part of the reason Clean Solar Solutions got called in for this clean.

There is the extra complication with this solar array as it seems that the bird strikes only occur twice a year, indicating that the BMW Mini plant sits under a migratory flight path. However, cleaning was completed on site within 5 days and we put forward our proposal for inhibiting the bird activity.

Speaking about our cleaning of the solar panels, BMW Head of Sustainability spoke with Clean Solar Solutions M.D. Steve Williams at a solar conference in Milan, Italy and said "Sustainability is a guiding principle of BMW's corporate strategy. By 2020, the BMW Group will be the leader in the use of renewable energy in production and value creation. Efficient solar systems are part of the success story."

Clean Solar Solutions are glad to be playing their small part in helping the BMW Group reach their renewable targets with their solar panel cleaning service. Commenting on this, Williams states "The BMW Group and other large corporations continue to press forward with renewable ideals. They have amazing ambitions and here in the UK, we should be listening to their plans and strategies. We as a company are proud to be providing our services to such global brands as the BMW Group and look forward to helping them hit their targets in any way we can."

It continues to be the case that birds are blighting solar panels across the country. Now that spring is approaching, this problem will only get worse as birds mark their territory and begin the nesting season.

Bird droppings can inhibit output considerably by creating hotspots, shading and etching on solar panels. This can have a dramatic negative effect on PR, so acting quickly is a must. Clean Solar Solutions can provide you with a swift (no pun intended!) solution to the bird dropping problem you may face on a solar array and also provide you with advice and solutions on how to reduce bird activity around the solar panels.

Clean Solar Solutions have installed wind-driven bird deterrents that now stand guard over the solar panels mounted on an East Sussex school.

The output of the solar panels was being reduced by the accumulation of bird droppings from nearby nesting birds. The high visibility of the deterrent from the air and the random nature of the movement of the bird deterrent proves to be very effective at deterring birds from visiting the area.

Reducing bird activity near solar panels is very important. Bird droppings on solar panels create shade, cause that part of the panel to overheat and thereby reduces output. By installing bird deterrents and cleaning the solar panels regularly, a high level of output is maintained by ensuring the panels are free from shading.

If you have solar panels that are plagued by birds, please contact us to see how we can help you.

What Is The Effect Of Bird Droppings On Solar Panels?

The true impact of bird droppings on solar panels, whilst not the most romantic subject, needs to be discussed. Are bird droppings really that much of a problem for solar panels? The solar industry in the UK has been maturing for over 5 years now and some harsh lessons been learned. The early days were consumed with feed-in tariffs and installing bigger, better and more challenging solar arrays. Watching all of this from above, have been the birds and they have been loving it, as you can see!

The fact is that solar panels have become a modern haven for small families of pigeons living under residential arrays. But roofs and water are attractive to huge colonies of seagulls and migratory birds who find warmth, shelter and ideal nesting areas. Nesting areas mean massive bird dropping problems where solar panels are present. It is not an issue that we can not goosestep around.

Bird droppings on solar panels are an all too often an underestimated and overlooked problem. That is, until it’s too late. As Clean Solar Solutions have been swanning around on our solar panel cleaning trips, we have been shocked by what we have seen as bird droppings blight solar panels, in some cases to the point of rendering a whole solar array virtually useless. As well as this, removing hard, baked-on bird droppings effectively has become an extreme task, providing a steep learning curve even for solar panel cleaning specialists.

Below are some examples of what CSS have encountered on our travels in regard to bird droppings on solar panels and how this has affected the solar panels for the short and long term.

Bird Droppings On Ground Mounted Solar Panels

Ground mounted solar panels make up the bulk of the solar panels Australia.Thankfully though, unless ground mounted solar farms are located close to the coast, they do not suffer as badly from bird droppings as do roof mounted or floating solar panels.Like any outdoor surface though, solar panel are prone to bird droppings like the picture shown below.

As well as birds dropping during flight as shown in the above picture, it is very common on solar farms for the birds also perch on the top frame of the panels and drop. This has similar results as shown in this picture. Some solar farms are plagued with this particular issue.

If the bird droppings are frequently seen on the top edge of the solar panels, it may be that a professional team of solar panel cleaners needs to go in and spot-clean the solar panels periodically, removing the bird droppings. As seen on the above picture though, there is a green algae running along the bottom edge of the panel. If this is the case across the whole site, a full clean is recommended.

Bird Droppings On Roof Mounted Solar Panels

Roof mounted solar arrays have become havens for bird populations. Where birds may have previously just rested on a roof, the newly installed solar panels now provide shelter from the wind and rain. As a result, there are now many residential solar arrays that have birds nesting under them. Information from clients of Clean Solar Solutions shows that these birds are causing damage to the wiring under the solar panels and causing system failures. An example of the mess birds can create under solar panels is shown below.

There are some very frustrating problems for homeowners with birds nesting under their solar panels. Of a particular nuisance is the noise that the birds create early in the morning. Residents regularly report to us their being disturbed at 4:30am, but along with this is the inevitable mess that the birds create on the roof, which then rolls down into the house gutters and creates blockages.

However, solar panels mounted on commercial rooftops appear to be the suffering the most problems as a result of bird droppings. We are coming across more and more arrays that look like this one.

We do not need to guess that there are a number of problems that will arise from these kind of levels of bird droppings on the solar panels. Loss of output will be considerable and hotspotting will also be present. We also feel quite sure that no investor or asset owner would like their array to look like this from an aesthetic point of view.

Bird Droppings on Floating Solar Panels

Floating solar arrays are a more recent installation type in Australia and again, these are not immune from solar panels being soiled from bird droppings. Floating solar arrays are often being sited on reservoirs because they are sheer water and are therefore, obvious havens for colonies of migratory and resident birds.

Nesting birds prefer sheltered areas and minimal disturbance from humans. Solar panels and the floats between rows of panels provide just such a place. Birds can rest and nest without disturbance. The result is heavy soiling from bird droppings, virtually from day one. It seems that more so than anywhere else, floating solar panels attract birds and their droppings.

‘Stone the crows!’ you may think. But despite the frustration of system owners, this is not an option, a more humane approach to this situation is needed. Due to their unique location, floating solar panels present different challenges for cleaning and the tricky process can be time-consuming.

Steve Williams, M.D. of Clean Solar Solutions comments "When I started cleaning solar panels in 2011, I had over 15 years of external cleaning experience and I knew the problems that arose from bird droppings on outdoor surfaces particularly. As we found from car paintwork particularly, bird droppings etch into a surface and when the bird dropping is removed, the surface is left etched with the outline of the bird dropping." This has proved true in the case of solar panels also, as the above photo shows.

There is another long term effect of all of these bird droppings, as can be seen below.

Etching On Solar Panels

On first impressions, it appears that this panel has not been cleaned properly. However, this panel has been cleaned repeatedly and the etching is still present. What negative effect that this will have on the panel, only time will tell. Etching can be greatly reduced, however, if not eliminated, if the bird droppings are removed from the surface within a short period of time.

On some sites, we and the asset owners know there are bird issues at certain times of year. We are therefore scheduled ahead of time and called in swiftly before the droppings have time to get baked on in the sun and etch the glass on the solar panel. Depending on the geographical location of the solar panels, we can have cleaners on site within 24 hours of the problem being reported to us. Sites do vary in the frequency of cleans needed, but acting quickly gets the best results. Once etching takes place on a solar panel, it is very difficult to rectify.

Bird Droppings & Solar Panels - Conclusion

In the early days of solar, when I used to speak of solar panel cleaning at trade shows and the like, folks thought I was cuckoo. People would turn around and say that there would never be a market for solar panel cleaning, due to them being ‘self-cleaning’. From experience, I knew that this would not be true. Hence, the reason that Clean Solar Solutions was set up.

From our early days of solar panel cleaning, we very quickly identified that there would be a need for effective bird deterrents and both services would need to be built in to both build costs and the ensuing O&M budget. If you did even a little stint with our company, you would see this to be true. In many cases, the obsession with the short term view of purely installing has led to the problems that system owners are now experiencing. The issues that now exist for homeowners, commercial rooftop owners and asset owners need to be overcome. This is resulting in great frustration and unexpected increases for O&M budgets, costs that may be hard to swallow.

We know that shading is the great enemy of solar panels. Shading equals increase in heat and stress upon components and a drop in output. The message then is clear, bird dropping issues need to be discussed and anticipated in the planning phase of projects. With the burgeoning commercial rooftop market here in the UK, now is time to discuss these issues in planning phase and build into O&M budgets funds for bird deterrents and for removing the bird droppings by way of regular cleaning.

The solar panels being installed in an area are new, but the birds have been around for a long, long time. Changing bird behaviour when they are settled in an area is not an easy task, but deterring them from visiting a site and cleaning up after them can be with the correct planning.

Burying our head in the sand like an ostrich, hoping the birds will go away or that the panels will clean themselves is not the answer. The birds will want to nest in habitats that we are creating under and around solar panels. We can’t duck the issue. Our plan to tackle the problems that birds to solar panels needs to be swift and precise.

Clean Solar Solutions provide help and advice and solutions on both existing and new solar projects where birds present problems. If you have any questions about issues with your solar panels from bird droppings, please feel free to contact us.

A Romford homeowner has seen instant improvements from having a rounded out residential solar panel maintenance service from Clean Solar Solutions. They had a problem with birds nesting under and resting on their solar panels, which in turn created a mess on their solar panels and the solar panels were at risk from damage by birds pecking at the wiring on the underside of the solar panels.

Karen Williams, Residential Coordinator for Clean Solar Solutions comments "The homeowner contacted us under some duress due to the mess that the birds were creating. Mr Seabrook monitors the output of his solar panels closely and realised the birds were impacting on the output of his solar panels, so we needed to act as quickly as we could."

Bird droppings on solar panels create permanent shade. Because of how solar panels work, a bird dropping can impact on the output of a single panel, but this has a knock on effect on to the rest of the output of the solar panels in that array and overheats the shaded part of the solar panel. So keeping bird droppings off solar panels is very important.

Williams continues "We sent out a roofing team who fitted bird proofing measures around the perimeter of the solar panels, in line with the guidelines provided by the solar panel manufacturer's warranty. When the birds cannot access the underside of the solar panels, they move on. One of our solar panel cleaning teams followed close behind and removed the bird droppings from the solar panels."

Mr Seabrook is very happy with the results and will enjoy a continued solar maintenance program from us.

If you would like advice or a free, no obligation quote for solar panel cleaning or bird proofing, please feel free to contact us.